Chandlers BMW Service

Ok Steve

I'd be up for sorting it out, but I would like to go further than a dealer list, useful as that is.

I'd go for anything to do with our cars, dealers, independant specialists, dam good ordinary garages, wheel refurbishers, interior refurbishers, audio & navigation equipment, scrap yards ( or second hand parts dealers ), second hand car sales that are known to sell good bmws, plus anything else you lot can think of.

But.......... absolutely NO comments, Just the business name, a contact name, a telephone number, and what benefits ( if any ) they would be prepared to give bmwcc members, I'd have to contact each one as they were suggested to get the last bit.

If people think this is a good idea, I'll suggest it to Howard and Killian, any final decision has to rest with them.

This whole thing would have to be information only, with present thoughts on this subject it couldnt be seen as a recommendation page, just forum members pasing contacts to each other.

B 7 VP wrote:  Yes, nearly there.

What extra would you add John ?

 Pleased to hear of Chandlers Good service on your car, and that you now think they may be OK.BUT-- for the past 11 days the world on this forum, have been warned Not to go to them.So for this reason alone, Any list of "Past suppliers of services to BMW owners"will not be allowed to make any comment as to good, bad or indifferant services.This was suggested by Nigel, and must be approved by Howard and Killian.I would also suggest, that the Clubs Chairman, Jeff Heywood is advised of the proposal, and it receives his approval.Perhaps Now, we can remove the Chandler Warning bannerline.

I think to compile an accurate list of people that offer a service to the "M" owner, be it, servicing, parts, bodywork, interior, alloys etc etc, is going to take some time, whoever takes this on is going to have to contact all the various places suggested and find out exactly what they do offer and to get an idea if they do know what they are talking about, and any deals that are available to club members, so maybe this is something that could go into the club magazine once it's been compiled, at least this way you would have it to hand if you needed to contact anyone, I take it everyone keeps there mags like me, just a thought.

I still think It's a good idea, but It has to be done correctly. Enough babbling.

                                              Thanx, steve.

An interesting thread with lots of views from many angles. Before going into the solution that I propose (which has been approved by our club chairman, I was asked to look into the liability problem by the National Committee. The question posed to the Scottish Law Society was this. "If an event is arranged on our club forum, and someone got hurt as a result of attending this event, would the club be held responsible?"
The answer that came back was "If the same guys had arranged the event over the telephone, would BT be held responsible?"

That said, no disclaimer is bullet proof, and as far as I am aware, there has only been one court case on the matter of web publisher liability, and this has not yet been resolved. I tend to agree with the other members who say don't look for trouble.

Now for my solution:
I have a list of all BMW Dealers in the UK and Ireland.
A database needs setting up which asks certain questions, to which the answer can only be positive, neutral or not applicable. EG Does the firm service M3s satisfactorily. The answer is yes or blank or N/A. Do they look after Old Motors Yes or Blank N/A, Do they wash your car when they have worked on it, How is the coffee in the service reception....etc...etc

The default answer will always be N/A, to indicate that that point was not at issue in the current post, until someone has entered a yes or a blank. The database will also need to hold the username of the person making the entry, and can hold up to say 10 records for each dealer. The same username can not be in the group of 10 records more than once. If more people than ten make a report, then the first one gets dropped off. The results for any dealer can be translated into a star rating for each question. Thus after enough people have submitted a vote, the rating will become obvious. If enough people put blanks into the answers, then the ratings will fall, and vice versa for yes votes. A yes on a topic can count 1 and a blank can count -1. If the yesses equal the blanks, then the result would be 0 or N/A.

Assuming you all can make head or tail of this plan, then the question is ---What are the questions that we should ask.
The next question is can Nigel write the database in Access, and can Killian set up the required code on the forum, or should it be on the club web site with links to it from the forum?

Answers please by a week today.

I'm almost with you Howard, but to be honest we can look in the phone book for a list of dealers.

I was thinking more along the lines of anything to do with our cars on a regional basis, bmwcc regions.

These are only my thoughts, but, a nominated person ( I was offering myself as both a club member and a moderator, but you could have one for each region ), supplies an e-mail address.

Anyone from the forum/club can contact the nominated person with a suggested "contact", giving company name, service provided, a telephone number and contact name.

The nominated person then contacts the company suggested, gets permision for them to be listed on here and any possible benefits to club members ( discounts etc ).

The nominated person could then update the list.

We would then have a list by region of where you could get your car serviced, repaired, painted, good value tyres, interior repairs, etc etc

It would take time to get going, but I think would be worth it, and it could also include main dealers nominated by members.

I'm dubious of a star rating system, the list is only supposed to be for information.

You could also list the person that suggested the "contact", that way if anyone wanted more information, they could contact the person recommending the service directly on here, via pm.

 

Nigel So you are suggesting that we build up a list only comprising nominated people. I can see the benefit in that, but the way that you are proposing to do it, by then contacting the nominated company and asking questions sounds like a lot of work for the nominated person.

Could be better if the guy making the nomination, who after all would know the company concerned, was to get the information required, and simply fill in a form on the site to make up the database.

That would spread the work - only one person involved, with perhaps a bit of spell checking for the mods. All that would be required is a downloadable form with a lot of questions on it which are fixed format, followed perhaps with a couple of freeform text fields for comments, plus one for the guy doing the nominating.

The guy making the recommendation would then ask the questions, fill in the form and the database would automatically be updated. It could be sorted by region and town for easy searching.

All types of companies could be included - paint - leather -servicing - spares - whatever.

sorry to butt in gents , but how about -----(deep breath)

 if your gna go to the trouble of listing dealers on OUR club , how about getting them to either :-

 get involved in the club discount scheme if not allready , that way when a member uses em they know they are dealing with a genuine bmw enthusiast , MIGHT stop any questionable servicing requirements as they MIGHT realize they run the risk of a question mark over their name !!??

or ,,,,  See if the dealers would be interested in inviting the club to any open days or shows they get involved in ? that way members can get to meet staff and create a good relationship between the dealers and members ! as most of the MEMBERS  on here are not of the boy racer type ( i said MOST !! cough cough ) so behaviour isnt an issue !!

 i just think either would be a good way of giving the good (genuinely interested) dealers a chance to have their name on the RECOMENDED list ???

 after all these cars are more than just our transport arent they !!!

 

Daddy Cool

Although discount is important, its not the be all and end all of everything.

If someone wants to list a dealer that doesnt give bmwcc discount then I think thats fine, as the service is obviously worth the listing in that members opinion.

We should get it going first, then see how its goes.

This is for our benefit, not the companys concerned.

I can remember owning my first bmw and thinking where do I get this, where do I get that etc , who can service it without taking it to a main dealer etc.

Howard

The main reason for suggesting a nominated person was to keep control of items posted, maybe your system is better but... I'd suggest the posts  are checked first before they are added to the list, it enables spelling ( not that important really), language, and content to be checked first, rather than us " dealing " with any issues afterwards.

This forum is about the best I've ever seen for control over language and offensive comments, but where we are dealing with companies I just thought caution would be good, some of them are large and powerful.

I also thought it would be polite to get permission from the company that we are listing, it may seem more proffesional, and lead to a better car club/company relationship.

It may also please the club officials, and encourage them to print it in the mag, and therefore give the non forum members a chance to benefit from the list, as well as getting their favourite contacts listed by contacting the club office.

 

I was just checking out the BM3W website and stubled on this section they are building
BM3W Dealer Reviews

It isn't fully functional yet, but they are advising their member to input their experiences "It is VITAL that you complete a record of your impression of your dealer, good OR bad, as this will help give a more accurate view of a dealer."

Edited by encomium